Simple Multiplayer Mod

**Schweetness** · October 08, 2016, 08:27 PM

Hello,

I'm interested in making a simple multiplayer mod. The idea is to pare the unit rosters and types down to only have one unit per niche, have each tactical niche filled, and make the strengths and weaknesses of each unit type exaggerated in order to properly reward the right tactics in a totally unambiguous way. This would include exaggerating the buffs/debuffs from terrain.

The motivation for this mod is partly with the ambiguity around the unit balance. For example, in general swords should beat spears in the melee, but what if it's elite spearmen? or upgraded spearmen? or chepaer militia swords? Then the issue becomes muddled and the outcome is not clear, especially given how many combinations of different unit types, including all of their upgrades, there are. Rather than militia spearmen, levy spearmen, heavy spearmen, warband spearmen, auxilliary spearmen, etc...there would just be one unit, spearmen. I think this would make tactical decision-making clearer, and balance potentially much better and easier to implement.

I think it would also ensure a bit more balanced and interesting army selections, rather than just the most expensive heavy cavalry and infantry facing off against one another in so many matches. I'm taking some cue in part from Shogun 2 where the more elite units were both more expensive and smaller, as wells as from Arena where the terrain type was so important. I'm thinking that simplifying the unit selection will put most of the emphasis on the tactical decision-making, which will itself be much clearer and with more strongly established rewards/punishments for playing correctly.

I've chosen these generic unit types to fill each tactical niche. Here are descriptions of their general traits. In the spoiler are the actual numbers. At the end there is more of a description of their tactical niche.

Swordsmen: very good all around, heavily armoured, expensive, smaller unit size, shielded, inspires other units, very good morale
Spearmen: good defense, excellent vs cav, larger shield size, larger unit size, medium armor, bad in forest/scrub, normal morale
Pikemen: light armor, small shield, good defense, excellent , very large unit size, very poor in forest/scrub, lowish morale
Two-Handers: no armor, no shield, weak defense, excellent attack and charge, small unit size, pretty expensive, good in forest, excellent morale
Light Infantry: fast, 4 javelins, good attack, light armor, medium shield, good in forest, normal morale (not a cheap unit, a good infantry unit that sacrifices armor for manueverability and some AP throwing javelins)
Archers: decent range and missile attack, debuffed in forest and snow, worthless in melee, low morale
Heavy Cavalry: excellent all around, expensive and smaller in number, shielded, causes fear, debuffed in forest, excellent morale,
Light Cavalry: good attack and decent defense, light armor, small shield, fast, debuffed in forest, larger numbers for cav, normal morale
Lancers: excellent charge and high attack, no shield and little armor and defense, debuffed in forest, fast, normal morale
Horse Archers: decent range and missile attack, poor in melee, debuffed in forest, lowish morale

Also considering:
legionnaires, cheap throwaway infantry, slingers, maybe siege units but I don't think so,

I didn't really like how slingers, archers, and javelinmen filled a similar niche, just with distinction in range, ammo, and damage. Instead, I thought I could simplify to one long ranged unit (archers), and then a separate light infantry unit with a more realistic 4 javelins, good attack, light armor and forest buffs.

Here's the export_descr_units file as of right now. I've placed all these units into Dacia and Armenia, and gotten rid of Dacia and Armenia's other units, and moved over the right unit cards, just for testing so far:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

I spent a good while balancing but it's still not balanced of course. The idea though is for the niche of each unit to come out as follows:

Swordsmen: elite heavy melee infantry that are very good all around and smaller in number, used for shoring up the weak points in the line
Spearmen: the cheaper mass of regular infantry in the army with bonuses against arrows (large shield) and cav
Pikemen: fill a similar role to spearmen, but they have pikes of course, are much worse against ranged though because of small shields and lighter armor
Two-Handers: elite attack/charging infantry that tear in to armor and units stuck in the forest, good for ambushing and breaking through the enemy infantry line, but very vulnerable to arrows and cavalry charges.
Light Infantry: good for breaking up shield/spear walls with javelins, and for flanking and ambushing in forests
Archers: long ranged unit with no melee ability and low morale, good for killing unshielded and lightly armored enemies.
Heavy Cavalry: a small but expensive unit of elite heavy cavalry that are good all around, protect the general, can be used in the most desperate scenarios, or to kill enemy light cav, and cause fear.
Light Cavalry: a larger and cheaper cav unit good at running down light infantry and archers, mediocre in extended melee and morale
Lancers: a normal sized cav unit used for charging, rense and repeat, will get eaten alive in extended melee
Horse Archers: a skirmishing and screening unit for drawing away enemies

I messed with lethality some but the results of doing that are pretty stark so I set those back to one. I also changed the unit delays but I didn't really see much difference.

Where do you think my balance needs work? I know that it does, especially in unit costs, but I wanted to get the forum's thoughts.

What do you think of this idea in general?

Am I missing any niches?